These days there is so much focus on SEO and other aspects of online marketing that, incredibly, many companies fail to see the true value of a strong social media presence. In fact, a surprising number of online businesses fail to even update their social media accounts, if they have any at all, which, in 2016, just shouldn’t be happening.
Large enterprises tend to have a team of social media experts that are working on their social media accounts on a full-time basis, whilst even small businesses hire individuals to build up their social presence across networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. However, despite this, there is a worrying number of companies who simply fail to realise the potential that social media holds, and it’s about time that we helped them to discover that potential.
Firstly, you need to consider whether you have the capacity to look after your social media accounts in-house, or whether it would be more beneficial, and cost-effective, to outsource the work to a digital marketing agency. Remember, it takes time to train staff to use all of the available social media networks that you want to have a presence on, as well as them having the time to update them all on a constant basis throughout the day, so, if this would prove difficult then using a specialist social media management company would be your best bet.
In either case, you need to establish the tone and voice of your brand, the appearance that you want to present yourself with, and the target audience that you are aiming to reach out to. Failing to do so can be disastrous, as you can see by these epic social media fails of recent years.
Still not sure that social media is the way to drive additional business into your company? Ok, let’s talk stats.
- There are over 500 million Tweets posted every day on Twitter.
- Instagram sees an average of 70 million new photos uploaded every day.
- An average Facebook user might have 1,500 posts eligible to appear in their news feed per day.
As stated earlier, the potential of a strong social media presence is huge but only if you attack in the right manner. For example, your posts need to be creative and well planned if they are going to receive the engagement rates that you desire. A post such as ‘We’re on our third cup of coffee and it’s only 11am!’ is unlikely to encourage people to engage with it, whereas a post that is well thought out, creative and designed for engagement is likely to perform far more successfully. It’s all about ensuring that the individual/team that manage your social media accounts have that creative spark that can take your presence to the next level.
Further to this, it is vital that you are flexible in your approach to social media, be open to test the water and try strategies that you’ve not exploited before. This will allow your social media accounts to stay ahead of your rivals because, whereas their accounts may have become slightly stagnant over time, yours will be constantly moving with the demands of your audience. It is also important to recognise when your competitors are ahead of you and understanding that your social media approach needs to adapt in order to become more competitive.
Finally, they say that the way to a women’s heart is a good sense of humour (and food, but we won’t mention that), and the same can be said about social media. Posts that bring out a positive reaction, such as laughter, will have a much greater impact than mundane posts. To put it simply, funny posts receive a far greater engagement rate, so aim to stamp your sense of humour onto your social media account and you will would be surprised at the reaction you’ll receive, as per the below example posted by Sainsbury’s:
So, whether you want to use social media as a tool to increase sales, product exposure, company awareness and even simply create a stir, then you need to be willing to put in the time and effort that it takes to achieve your goals. You can’t achieve success by simply posting one tweet per day, you need to be working on your presence on a constant basis and, if time isn’t on your side, then you need to think about hiring a specialist social media management company to ensure that they do it on your behalf.
Our social media management service starts from just £200.00 per month, and you can find out more by clicking here: Social Media Management. Alternatively, you can call us on 0845 582 3545 or complete our online enquiry form.
